Best Startup
At Best Startup UK we track over 130,000 UK startups and over 500,000 people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top United Kingdom based Director operating in the Biopharma space. If you think a Director is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on editor@beststartup.co.uk.
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Companies House UK, Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Paul Agapow
Health Informatics Director of AstraZeneca
Originally a labcoat-wearing biochemist and immunologist, Paul fell sideways into using computers for biology, at first for evolutionary biology and infectious disease. In more recent years, his work has focused on precision medicine and biomedical analytics.
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About AstraZeneca: AstraZeneca is a global pharmaceutical company that discovers, develops, manufactures, and markets prescription medicines.
Vincenzo Garzya
Patient Centricity Excellence Director of AstraZeneca
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About AstraZeneca: AstraZeneca is a global pharmaceutical company that discovers, develops, manufactures, and markets prescription medicines.
Claus Bendtsen
Executive Director of AstraZeneca
Claus Bendtsen heads Quantitative Biology as part of Discovery Sciences within AstraZeneca. His department provides global support in areas of informatics, mathematical modelling, image analytics and non-clinical statistics. Prior to joining AstraZeneca he held positions at Novartis and Merck & Co. Earlier in his career he co-founded three start-ups and worked in academia. He holds a Ph.D. in applied mathematics and an MBA.
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About AstraZeneca: AstraZeneca is a global pharmaceutical company that discovers, develops, manufactures, and markets prescription medicines.
Sheena Behn
Global Supply Director of AstraZeneca
Sheena Behn is an established global leader in the Pharmaceutical Industry with significant supply chain, manufacturing and development experience and expertise. She has worked at AstraZeneca for 20 years. Sheena is currently VP Therapy Area Supply (for CVRM/INA Therapy Areas) in Operations for AstraZeneca, and the Operations Executive Sponsor for Risk, based in the UK. She was previously based in Gothenburg as VP R&D Supply Chain (2013-2015), running the global group for Clinical Supply at AZ; and before that VP for Wuxi Manufacturing site for 3 years, based in China (2010-2012). Sheena is a Pharmacist who started her career working in London hospitals, before working in pharmaceutical development with GSK and then AZ before joining Operations in 2007.
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About AstraZeneca: AstraZeneca is a global pharmaceutical company that discovers, develops, manufactures, and markets prescription medicines.
Matthew Bonam
Pharmaceutical Project Director of AstraZeneca
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About AstraZeneca, AstraZeneca, AstraZeneca: AstraZeneca is a global pharmaceutical company that discovers, develops, manufactures, and markets prescription medicines.
Clive G. Brown
Directorships of Oxford Nanopore Technologies
Clive is Chief Technology Officer at Oxford Nanopore. On the Executive team, he is responsible for all of the Company’s product development activities. Clive leads the specification and design of the Company’s nanopore based sensing platform, including strand DNA/RNA sequencing and protein sensing applications with a strong focus on scientific excellence and successful adoption by the scientific community. Clive joined Oxford Nanopore from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (Cambridge, UK) where he played a key role in the adoption and exploitation of ‘next generation’ DNA sequencing platforms. This involved helping to set up the world’s largest single installation of Illumina (formerly Solexa) Genome Analyzers in a production sequencing environment, initially used to pioneer the 1000 genomes project. From early 2003 he was Director of Computational Biology & IT at Solexa Ltd, where he was central to the development and commercialisation of the Genome Analyzer (GA). Solexa was sold to Illumina for $650M in early 2007 after the successful placement and adoption of 12 instruments. The Solexa technology, now commercialised by Illumina, is the market leading DNA sequencing technology driving the renaissance in DNA based discovery. He has a strong background in computer science and genetics/molecular biology and manages interdisciplinary teams including mechanical engineering, electronics, physics, surface chemistry, electrophysiology, software engineering and applications (of the technology). Clive applies modern agile management techniques to the entire product development lifecycle. Clive has also held various management and consulting positions at GlaxoWellcome, Oxford Glycosciences and other EU- and US-based organisations. He has worked at the interface between computing and science, ranging from genetics to proteomics. He holds degrees in Genetics and Computational Biology from the University of York.
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About Oxford Nanopore Technologies, Solexa: Oxford Nanopore Technologies develops nanopore-based electronic systems for analyzing single molecules, including DNA, RNA, and proteins.
Ray Edgson
Director of evonetix
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About evonetix: Evonetix is a provider of a desktop platform designed to synthesize DNA at unprecedented accuracy and scale.
Richard Whitley
Member of the Board of Directors of Gilead Sciences
Whitley joined Gilead’s Board of Directors in 2008. He is a Distinguished Professor, Loeb Scholar Chair in Pediatrics; Director, Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases; Vice-Chair, Department of Pediatrics; Senior Scientist, Department of Gene Therapy; Senior Scientist, Cancer Research and Training Center; Associate Director for Clinical Studies, Center for AIDS Research; and Co-Director, Center for Emerging Infections and Emergency Preparedness (CEIEP) for the institution. Whitley has held responsibility for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Collaborative Antiviral Study Group, is a past President of the International Society of Antiviral Research, chairs the Board of Scientific Counselors for the National Center for Infectious Diseases of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and is President of the Board of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.
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About : Gilead Sciences is a biopharmaceutical company that discovers, develops, manufactures and commercializes therapies for critical diseases.
Kruti Popat
Director, Customer Insights & Engagement of Galapagos
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About Galapagos: Galapagos is a clinical-stage biotechnology company, specialized in the discovery and development of small molecule medicines with novel.
Islam Pearson
Managing Director of Greenliving Pharma
Islam is the man in charge, the overseer, protector, and father figure. With his background in property development and renewable energy technologies, he tends to come at the business from the point of view of the customer, and regularly offers a wealth of knowledge to anyone interested. He lives for his work, and may or may not be a gymnast. We’re not quite sure yet.
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About Greenliving Pharma: Greenliving Pharma is a nutraceutical company that distributes pharmaceutical products.
Dominic Falcao
Founding Director of Deep Science Ventures
Founding Director at Deep Science Ventures
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About Deep Science Ventures: DSV is a venture studio and a fund that develops a systematic, optimized approach to science company development and investment.
Mark Hammond
Founding Director of Deep Science Ventures
Mark manages the commercialisation of software including web and mobile apps. Since joining the technology transfer team in 2011 he has founded the Imperial Digital Enterprise Accelerator and built a community of student entrepreneurship around the accelerator under the icstartup brand. This initiative drives venture creation via workshops, talks, funding and mentorship from experienced entrepreneurs in collaboration with both College initiatives and student societies. Mark completed a combined Masters in Neuroscience and Artificial Intelligence from UMIST and went on to obtain a PhD whilst leading a project which investigated how networks of neurons generate behaviour by implementing a biological neuronal network as the brain of a mobile robot. He has also been featured in New Scientist and given talks at the Science Museum and Dana Centre. Marks commercial background includes setting up an IT service business unit and an analyst role at a boutique investment bank in which he worked with IT and cleantech start-ups to develop their commercial and fundraising strategy.
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About Deep Science Ventures: DSV is a venture studio and a fund that develops a systematic, optimized approach to science company development and investment.
Gil McVean
Co Founder & Director of Genomics
Gil McVean is Professor of Statistical Genetics at the University of Oxford and Head of Bioinformatics and Statistical Genetics at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics. After an undergraduate training in Zoology, he obtained a PhD with Laurence Hurst in Cambridge and worked with Brian and Deborah Charlesworth in Edinburgh before joining Oxford in 2000. His research focuses on understanding the molecular and evolutionary processes that shape genetic variation in populations and the relationship between genetic variation and phenotype. He has made contributions to our understanding of areas including recombination hotspots, historical patterns of natural selection, the male mutation rate, human genetic variation, the role of HLA in complex disease and genealogical processes. He has played a leading role in the HapMap and 1000 Genomes Projects and currently works on organisms from HIV to malaria.
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About Genomics: Genomics plc aiming to lead the genomic transformation of healthcare.
Matthew Ainslie
Director DevOps & Cloud Engineering of PAREXEL
Matthew Ainslie serves as director of cloud engineering and devops at PAREXEL.
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About PAREXEL: PAREXEL is a biopharmaceutical services company that focuses on the development and commercialization of new medical therapies worldwide.
Susan Searle
Non-Executive Director of Horizon Discovery
Susan Searle is Chief Executive Officer of Imperial Innovations Group plc, an AIM listed company founded by Imperial College. Imperial Innovations is an integrated business combining the activities of technology transfer, incubation and investment across healthcare, engineering, environment and IT sectors. Susan has been instrumental in growing the business since joining the Ltd company in 1994. Previously she worked at Montech (Australia), Signet Group plc, Bank of Nova Scotia and Shell Chemicals Limited in the UK and internationally in a variety of business development and commercial roles. She has served on the boards of 15 spin-out companies including TurboGenset Inc. and sits on the boards of Thiakis Limited, EVO Electric Limited and i2india Holdings Limited. She has an MA in Chemistry from Exeter College, Oxford University.
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About : Horizon is a gene editing company that designs & engineers genetically-modified cells, applying them to advance human health.
Matt Worrall
Associate Director, Policy & Communication – Oncology of MSD
Matt has more than a decade of healthcare media relations and public affairs experience gained across medical professional bodies, NHS and provider sector. Before joining Portland he was a public affairs executive at ABPI and was Head of Communications at the Royal College of Surgeons. He saw the College through its engagement with the Health & Social Care Act 2012 and high-profile campaigning for the relaxation of the European Working Time Directive. Among his clients in recent years have been the NHS National Screening Committee, NHS England, BMI Healthcare, HCA International, Lilly, Amgen, UCB, Mundipharma, Apple and Alexion.
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About MSD: MSD is a leading global biopharmaceutical company that provides medicines, vaccines, biologic therapies, and animal health products.
Catherine Beech
Board of Directors of Exonate
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About : Exonate is a biotech company spun out of the University of Nottingham that is focused on alternative splicing of (VEGF) in ophthalmology.
Jonathan Moseley
Technical Director of CatSci
Jonathan obtained his BSc in Chemistry from Southampton University in 1986 before starting as a medicinal chemist for Merck Sharp and Dohme working on CNS projects for three years. He returned to academia in 1989 and completed his PhD from Cambridge University in 1992 on a thesis entitled Synthesis of Cerulenin Analogues with Prof. Jim Staunton. He returned to Merck Sharp and Dohme as a medicinal chemist for a further three years before moving to Zeneca (now AstraZeneca) as a process development chemist in 1996. Since then he has worked on the full range of pharmaceutical development projects from early route selection, kilo-lab and pilot plant scale-up, through to established manufacturing processes. His research interests include the application of new technologies to scale-up within pharmaceutical manufacture, notably in the use of microwaves. He has presented and published widely on both process development and microwave synthesis.
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About CatSci: CatSci provides innovative process research and development services to emerging, mid-sized and large pharma.
Ed Turp
Facilities Director of CatSci
Ed completed a BSc in Applied Chemistry at Salford University in 1993 and stayed to complete his PhD in 1996 with Prof. Garry Procter on stereoselective additions to a,b-epoxy-aldehydes. On completion of his PhD Ed joined Zeneca (now AstraZeneca) as a chemist working in the Research Support Laboratory at Mereside. In 2000 he moved to the Avlon site as part of the commercial product support team. In 2006 Ed moved into process chemistry to work on mid-stage development projects. In 2008 Ed switched gears to join the Catalysis Facility where he has delivered significant improvement to the ways of working and has been heavily involved in the utilisation of physical organic techniques to improve reaction understanding.
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About CatSci: CatSci provides innovative process research and development services to emerging, mid-sized and large pharma.
Richard Saumarez
Director of Fen EP Limited
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About Fen EP Limited: Fen EP Limited is a developer of biomedical device created to prevent sudden cardiac death.
Richard Saumarez
Director of Fen EP Limited
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About Fen EP Limited: Fen EP Limited is a developer of biomedical device created to prevent sudden cardiac death.
